Today marks about one year since I decided to plant a fruit and vegetable garden. As of today that idea has yet to reach fruition. For one year it's been a dormant idea collecting dust. However, upon my recent reading of a John Zerzan interview, the garden idea was smashed from its paralysis. No, he didn't say "go grow a garden and save the Earth". But he made a minute point that captured me; he spoke of alienation from our own physical conditions. Our alienation from natural things. A kind of living without being conscious or aware of our bodies. As if we were ghosts in a impartial machine.
The garden and Zerzan's point coalesce.
Living in the suburbs within a technologically advanced society, we find ourselves in a condition of dependence. Essentially, we play an indirect role in our mode of production. As a result, we grow outside ourselves. Practical things like fixing a car, building simple electrical devices, or even keeping a garden are all foreign things to most. Just 50 years ago all these things and much more were common knowledge.
But all drab shreds of theory aside, growing and tending a plant is my attempt to do something practical and direct.
So the process begins!
Step 1: Clean out my jungle of a back yard. Aside from the accumulated mounds of dog shit and wild grass(at a height of about 1-1.5 feet) that grew over the dead shrubs and branches, there was simply a lot of junk scattered everywhere. Plastic toys, dressers, dolls, a coffin(don't ask), old clothes, etc. So, step one was the disposal of all the junk, and general clean up of the entire area. A huge thanks goes to Twinky for assisting me in this task that I'm afraid I've under-stated.
The next step will be to tackle the over-grown grass and shrubbery. Sounds like a minor task, but that yard is a real monster.
The semi-before photo. (Note: this picture was taken after getting rid of all the junk aside from that splinter ridden ladder. Also, the picture does not include the other half of the yard that we cleaned which does not consist of greenery.)
